New Wärtsilä FPP design offers 4% fuel savings

JUNE 4, 2014 — Wärtsilä has introduced a, a new state-of-the-art fixed pitch propeller (FPP) design concept, the FPP Opti Design. It says that the new design offers fuel savings of up to 4% and highly reliable full scale performance predictions.

The concept has been developed at the company's Technology and Service Center in the Netherlands utilizing the latest computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology. It is the result of highly experienced design engineers having access to the very latest and most sophisticated software and analysis tools.

CFD calculations analyze not only the propeller performance, but, importantly, also the interaction between the propeller and hull. This provides extremely accurate information to achieve design and parametric optimization.

"Wärtsilä has more than 100 years of experience in developing high quality propeller solutions," says Arto Lehtinen, Vice President, Propulsion, Wärtsilä Ship Power. "To this huge knowledge resource we have now been able to add a highly sophisticated state-of-the-art design approach that is unmatched in the industry. The hull and the propeller, and the interaction between the two, can both now be taken into account during the design process. The result is a higher level of efficiency and lower operating costs."

Wärtsilä continues to develop solutions that save energy and improve the efficiency of ship propellers. These include the Tip Rake Concept featuring an extended tip, smoothly curved to the pressure side of the blade with optimized geometrical parameters developed to achieve efficiency improvements, lower pressure pulse levels, and a quieter propeller.

The Wärtsilä EnergoProFin is an innovative propeller cap with fins that rotates together with any make of propeller. By weakening the hub vortex, resistance is decreased and propulsion thrust is increased, resulting in fuel savings of up to 5%.

Energopac is Wärtsilä's optimized propulsion and maneuvering solution that reduces fuel consumption by integrating the propeller and rudder designs. It is fully optimised for energy efficiency without compromising either maneuverability or comfort levels.